Neurotrophic Factors: Are They Axon Guidance Molecules?

Abstract

Neurotrophic factors play a multiplicity of roles during development. They can promote axonal growth in vitro and are capable of orienting axons. Recently, molecular evidence suggests that neurotrophic factors and axon guidance molecules reglate the same signalling pathways in neurons. Yet only a few critical studies have tested a possible role for neurotrophic factors as guidance molecules in vivo. In this chapter I review the evidence for and against neurotrophic factors as axon guidance molecules.